8 Hour Reception and Extended Cocktail Hour

Thanks for your help!

I'm not sure what's typical but that seems fine to me. So long as I can keep myself busy during cocktail hour (aside from stuffing my face with hors d’oeuvres and drinking), I'd be fine to stay the two hours. Or even so, head back to my hotel room to freshen up then come back for the end of the cocktail hour. It's different than what I've been to, but I wouldn't be upset about the set up.

Even the long reception doesn't bother me since I'm more of a 'partier' so I'd probably stay the entire reception given that the party was good.

Honestly this all seems way too long to me. I'm in a wedding band and a 2-hour cocktail hour followed by a 6-hour reception is just unheard of. Why can't you have cocktail hour from 2:30-3:30, and then reception from 3:30-7:30, maybe 8? Then if people are still up for more, you can go to a local bar or back to your hotel for an after-party. I just don't see people staying all the way till 10:30 if they're arriving around 12:30-12:45 for the ceremony, and that could be thousands of dollars wasted on having the bar open for all those extra hours. Plus, I'd, personally, have no interest as a wedding guest in playing pool or darts or any of that stuff, so I'd be really antsy for the reception to start after the first hour.

A standard wedding is 1-hour cocktail, 4-hour reception.

View Quoted Comment Agree with this, it's too long. There is a reason it's called a cocktail hour, not cocktail 2-hour...

You’re gonna be absolutely exhausted. I had a 5 hour ceremony/reception and by 11 pm I wanted to pass out. You may not sleep much the night before. Your guests will be exhausted and so will you. I had a family member do a long day like that and people were trashed super early and many people left super early.

Holy crap. That is such a long day. Not only for your guests, but for you, too! I imagine if you are having to be at a 1 PM ceremony, you need to be in hair and makeup at like 7 am? That is like 16 hours of "wedding day".

If you want to both get married in a Catholic church and have an evening reception, I think maybe you should look around to see if you can get a church to marry you later. Look around in your area.

OR you can get married on a Friday or a Sunday OR have an afternoon party/ reception that looks like this:

Ceremony 1-2

Cocktail hour 2:30-3:30

Reception 3:30-7:30

I had a friend do something like this. What her and her new H did was they called ahead to a bar and asked if they had a private room and we continued the party there. It was much more casual (some people ran home to change) but the bride stayed in her gown and I though that was awesome. It was really fun and it was easier to "opt" out of it if you were tired or easier to stop by and have one drink as opposed to feeling like you have to stay until the very end.

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For many Catholics, receiving the sacrament in church is more important than the party, so placing the party first and then getting married later in the church wouldn't work. Also, weddings aren't performed on Sundays. A few other things are going on that day called masses.

I went to a wedding this past weekend that was similar to this. I don’t know the times exactly but the timeline was roughly like this:
Bus to ceremony: 2:10pm
Ceremony: 3:00-4:15pm (this was about a 30 minute reception and about 30-45 minute receiving line and mingling)
Bus back to reception: 4:15-4:45pm
Cocktail hour: 4:45-5:45pm
Dinner/dancing: 5:45-11:30pm (the meal was plated and all food (including cake) was served back to back)

When I found out the reception end time I thought it sounded like a long reception (and because I have a big mouth I said just that). I was also in the wedding (groom was FBIL) so it was a really long day for us.
I would be prepared for some guests to leave early which is what happened here. The weather could have been a major factor in this case but even guests staying in the hotel did end up heading to bed early.
All of that aside, I had a really great time and even stayed until the very last song. I agree with a PP that the atmosphere could affect how long people stay.